131. Ommegang Bière de Mars

Our second beer from Brewery Ommegang; our last one was their Witte. Bière de Mars is a dusky copper with a pillowy ivory head that leaves a whole buncha lacing behind. The nose is tart, fruity, and spicy, kinda like Elli. Beginning with a dry malt front with some slight sweetness and candy notes, Bière de Mars moves into estery, yeasty, and spicy flavors in the middle before finishing dry with some tartness and a little bit of lingering funkiness. The body is medium with some creaminess, and there is brightness in the mouthfeel from the carbonation, although the beer is also rather dry overall. Bière de Mars gets better as it warms; it would be nicer if the nose and the body were more evenly matched, but this could be a product of age. None of the hop characteristics noted on the bottle are present, but again, this could be due to age. A good beer that we’ll have to try again under fresher conditions.

From the Ommegang website: “Ommegang Bière de Mars is a Belgian-style amber ale with a bit of magical space dust woven in - Brettanomyces bruxellensis, a wild-yeast used in the secondary fermentation. The Brett imparts added tartness, a bit of zing and some farmhouse funkiness. Also dry-hopped, this new ale continues our exploration of using Brett for secondary fermentation in limited-release beers.

Bière de Mars reveals a copper-amber body and a frothy white head that builds, clings and stays. Aromas are of malt and grain, clove, fruit and a bit of funk. Flavors are full-bodied with delicate malty sweetness, followed by spicy, peppery yeastiness and Brett-induced funk. Hopping is subtly bitter and aromatic, bumped up a bit by dry-hopping. The finish is dry and gently lingering. At 6.5% ABV, Bière de Mars offers easy quaffing; it also pairs nicely with spicy foods such as barbecue.”

ABV: 6.5%
Batch #2, October 2008

(11/8/2009)